What's on Your Bookshelf?
“What’s On Your Bookshelf” is a personal and professional growth podcast exploring the intersections of passion, potential, and purpose - featuring multi-certified coach and leadership development consultant Denise R. Russo alongside Sam Powell, Zach Elliott, Tom Schweizer, Dennis LaRue, and Michelle King.
Episodes
161 episodes
153 Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: Sixty-Three Days To Rewire Your Mind
We unpack why true change takes 63 days, how short daily steps become automatic habits, and where brain science meets identity-based practice. Benchmarks, accountability, and “energy as currency” make the plan concrete, compassionate, and doabl...
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Season 4
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Episode 153
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31:31
152 Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: Direct Your Brain For Change
We unpack six neuroplasticity practices from Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess and show how to move from reacting to responding. We share tools for self-regulation, visualization, and the 3:1 positivity shift to build peaceful control that lasts bey...
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Season 4
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Episode 152
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37:12
151 Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: Halfway To A Clearer Mind
We reach the practical heart of Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess and unpack the five-step Neurocycle that turns insight into change over 63 days. Simple on paper, hard in practice, the method helps us embrace tough thoughts, find root causes, and s...
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Season 4
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Episode 151
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36:56
150 Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: Mind Over Matter, Without The Woo
We dig into the difference between mind and brain, map the four levels of mind, and show how thoughts shape the body through neuroplasticity and epigenetics. Using tree and pruning metaphors, we share how to spot signals, trim toxic patterns, a...
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Season 4
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Episode 150
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34:15
149 Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: Mind Management For Real-Life Peace
We unpack how toxic thinking shows up in the body and how a practical, five-step mind management process can turn awareness into lasting change. Real stories meet research on stress, immunity, and neuroplasticity to help us build peace that hol...
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Season 4
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Episode 149
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31:21
148 Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: Proof In The Brain: Why Mind Management Works
We dig into the research-heavy chapter that proves mind management isn’t fluff and outline how awareness and autonomy work together to reduce toxic stress and build resilience. The data across brain waves, blood markers and validated scales poi...
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Season 4
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Episode 148
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31:25
147 Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: Mind Management, Real Results
We trace why mind management matters now, how the Neurocycle works, and what the research says about stress, habits, and biological aging. Heavy science meets practical steps, with identity, autonomy, and small daily actions at the center.<...
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Season 4
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Episode 147
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34:11
146 Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: Mind Management Explained
We dig into Chapter Two of Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess by Dr. Caroline Leaf and explain why mind management is the lever for change. We separate mind from brain, outline a five-step neurocycle, and share practical ways to catch and edit though...
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Season 4
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Episode 146
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28:36
145 Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: Mental Clarity Starts Here
We kick off a new year and series with Dr. Caroline Leaf’s Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess, linking emotional warning signals to health, performance, and leadership. We share why mind management beats quick fixes and how small, steady practices re...
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Season 4
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Episode 145
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28:58
144 Year Four Intro, New Theme
We map out a year to declutter life and leadership, moving from neuroscience-backed habit change to practical workplace cleanup, stronger boundaries, and a disciplined pursuit of less. Four books guide the path: Dr. Caroline Leaf, Marie Kondo a...
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Season 4
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Episode 144
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32:46
143 The Four Agreements: Conclusion, Heaven On Earth, By Choice
We close the year with The Four Agreements’ final chapter and explore how a “new dream” becomes real through imagination, love, and steady action. From Bob Ross to Figment to mountain summits, we turn mistakes into material and choices into cha...
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Season 3
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Episode 143
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28:25
142 The Four Agreements: Breaking Old Agreements For A New Year
We close out the year by applying The Four Agreements to real life, focusing on how to break old agreements and act like a warrior who refrains rather than represses. The theme is simple: awareness first, action next, approach goals over avoida...
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Season 3
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Episode 142
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31:06
141 The Four Agreements: Do Your Best, Today
We explore the Fourth Agreement—always do your best—and how it unlocks the other three. Through stories on careers, caregiving, and community, we trade perfectionism for presence and turn insight into action.• how doing your best change...
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Season 3
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Episode 141
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35:26
140 The Four Agreements: Assumptions Unraveled
We explore the Third Agreement—don’t make assumptions—through real stories at work and home, and connect it to impeccable words and not taking things personally. Curiosity, clear communication, and coaching emerge as tools to replace guesswork ...
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Season 3
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Episode 140
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32:45
139 The Four Agreements: Own Your Reactions, Find Your Freedom
We explore the second agreement from The Four Agreements and show how not taking things personally creates real freedom. Personal stories, practical tools, and a clear path to separate identity from other people’s words and your own inner criti...
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Season 3
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Episode 139
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36:55
138 The Four Agreements: The Power Of Impeccable Words
We unpack the first of The Four Agreements—be impeccable with your word—and show how language can free you from despair, gossip, and self-betrayal. Through stories, studies, and practical steps, we map a path from reactive speech to clear, kind...
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Season 3
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Episode 138
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39:18
137 The Four Agreements: Waking Up From The Dream Of Society
We question the dream of society, how attention is trained by repetition, and why most of our beliefs were never chosen by us. We map the Judge and the Victim, explore fear versus love, and share practical ways to rewrite old agreements and rec...
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Season 3
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Episode 137
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32:36
136 The Four Agreements: Opening The Door To Personal Freedom
We open a new arc with The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, shifting from a year of habits and happiness into a practice of inner freedom rooted in Toltec wisdom. The smoky mirror story sets our theme: clear the fog, see the light, and rebui...
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Season 3
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Episode 136
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26:05
135 Next Up: The Space Between Books
We pause between books to invite you to read with us and announce The Four Agreements as our next deep dive into practical personal freedom for work and life. We share why slow, deliberate reading changes behavior, and offer a complimentary Agi...
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Season 3
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Episode 135
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28:20
SP6 Special Edition Agile Brain: Climbing The Pyramid Of Human Needs
We map a four-sided pyramid of human needs—self, social, material, spiritual—and explore how foundations enable higher aims like purpose and transcendence. Research, culture, and real stories show why ethics, community, and conscious reflection...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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49:45
SP5 Special Edition Agile Brain: Justice, Ethics, And The Search For Meaning
We trace how justice, ethics, and transcendence shape a meaningful life and why chasing happiness fails while purpose endures. JD Pincus shares research, history, and a practical tool to surface unmet needs and align action with values....
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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59:31
SP4 Special Edition Agile Brain: Lonely Hearts, Social Needs
We explore why inclusion, connection, and recognition are the social motives that make work and life feel meaningful, and how loneliness quietly harms health, teams, and trust. Stories from reality TV to school lunchrooms reveal why sincere car...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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49:46
SP3 Special Edition Agile Brain:Autonomy To Flow
We explore how autonomy enables immersion and why true success is a byproduct of meeting core emotional needs, not a shortcut to status. Stories of lottery winners, creatives, athletes, and leaders reveal why skipping foundations backfires and ...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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45:24
SP2 Special Edition Agile Brain: Self, Safety, And The Road To Potential
We explore how psychological safety enables authenticity, and how authenticity unlocks potential. JD Pincus connects fear, narcissism, imposter syndrome, and conspiracy thinking to a broader model of self, social, material, and spiritual domain...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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45:48
SP1 Special Edition Agile Brain: Emotions Drive The Wheel
We launch a special seven-part series with Dr. JD Pincus exploring the 12 emotional needs that shape decisions, leadership, and fulfillment. Emotions lead, thoughts explain, and leaders thrive when they surface needs and align habits with value...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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32:09